India
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| Republic of India Hindi: भारत गणराज्य |
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| National information | |||||
| National motto: | (None) | ||||
| National anthem: | Jana Gana Mana (anthem) Vande Mataram (song) |
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| About the people | |||||
| Official languages: | Hindi, English, 21 other languages | ||||
| Population: (# of people) | |||||
| - Total: | 1.12 billion (1,120,000,000)[1] (ranked 2) | ||||
| - Density: | 324 per km² | ||||
| Geography / Places | |||||
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| Capital city: | New Delhi | ||||
| Largest city: | Mumbai | ||||
| Area | |||||
| - Total: | 3,287,590 (ranked 7) | ||||
| - Water: | 312,321 km² (9.5%) | ||||
| Politics / Government | |||||
| Established: | August 15, 1947 | ||||
| Leaders: | President: Ms Pratibha Patil Prime Minister: Dr. Manmohan Singh |
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| Economy / Money | |||||
| Currency: (Name of money) |
Indian Rupee (INR) | ||||
| International information | |||||
| Time zone: | +05:30 | ||||
| Telephone dialing code: | 91 | ||||
| Internet domain: | .in | ||||
India is a country in Asia. It has more than 1.12 billion (1,120,000,000) people, which is more than any other country in the world except China.[1] It is the seventh (7th) largest sized country in the world in amount of land. India is the largest democracy in the world.[2] The capital of India is New Delhi and India has the third largest army in the world with nuclear weapons.
Although India is a growing economy, it has high levels of poverty, illiteracy and malnutrition. India has a higher rate of malnutrition among children under the age of three (46% in year 2007) than any other country in the world.[3][4]
Contents |
[change] Language
The languages spoken by the most people in India are English and Hindi. There are also 21 other languages spoken in India. In the south of India, many people speak Kannada, Telugu, Tamil and Malayalam. In the north, many people speak Chhattisgarhi, Punjabi, Bengali, Gujarati, and Marathi, Oriya, and Bihari.
[change] History
The first people in India lived 9000 years ago; these people were the ones who made up the Indus Valley Civilization,[5] which is one of the oldest civilizations on Earth. After that, the Vedic period came. This is the country where two main Classical languages of the world wereborn - Sanskrit and Tamil. Both these languages are more than 3000 years old. In these, Tamil is one of the oldest languages existing in the world. The country founded a religion called Hinduism, which most Indians still follow. Later, a king called Ashoka built an empire called the Maurya dynasty in 300 BC. It made most of South Asia into one unified country.[6] From 180 BC, many other countries invaded India. Even later (100 BC - AD 1100), other Indian dynasties (empires) came, including the Chalukyas, Cholas, Pallavas, and Pandyas.[7] In South India at that time, science, art, and writing were very good and famous.
Many dynasties ruled India around the year 1000. Some of these were the Mughal, Vijayanagara, and the Maratha empires. In the 1600s, European countries invaded India, and the British took control of most of India by 1856. [8]
In the beginning of the 1900s, millions of people peacefully started to protest (not obey British rule). One of the people who were leading the freedom movement was Mahatma Gandhi, who only used peaceful, including a way called ahisma, which means "non-violence".[9] On August 15, 1947, India peacefully got free from the British Empire. India's constitution was founded on January 26, 1950. The first official leader (Prime Minister) of India was Jawaharlal Nehru.
After 1947, India has become a powerful country. It is one of the nations that founded the Non-Aligned Movement and the United Nations (when it was being ruled by Britain). It has fought and won many wars, including ones in 1947, 1962, 1965, 1971, and 1999. India has also done nuclear tests in 1974 and 1998, and it is one of the few countries that have a nuclear bomb.[10] Since 1991, India has been one of the fastest-growing economies in the world.[11]
[change] Government
India is the largest democracy in the world.[2] Its government is divided into three branches: the Legislative (the one that makes the laws, the parliament), the Executive (the government), and the Judiciary (the one that makes sure that the laws are obeyed, the supreme court).
The Legislative branch is made up of the Parliament of India, which is located in New Delhi, the capital of India. The parliament of India is divided into two groups: the upper house, Rajya Sabha (Council of States); and the lower house, Lok Sabha (House of People). The Rajya Sabha has 250 members,[12] and the Lok Sabha has 545 members.[12]
The Executive branch is made up of the President, Vice President, Prime Minister, and the Council of Ministers. The President of India is elected for five years. The President has the ability to choose the Prime Minister, who has most of the power. The Council of Ministers, such as the Minister of Defence, are helpers to the Prime Minister.
The Judicial branch is made up of the courts of India, including the Supreme Court. The Chief Justice of India is the head of the Supreme Court. The Supreme Court has the power to stop a law being passed by Parliament if it sees that the law is illegal and contradicts (opposes) the Constitution of India.[13] In India, there are also twenty-one High Courts.
[change] Indian states
India has twenty-eight states not including the capital New Delhi and seven union territories (which are different from states). Delhi and Goa have state status.
- Andhra Pradesh
- Arunachal Pradesh (disputed territory, claimed by China)
- Assam
- Bihar
- Chhattisgarh
- Goa
- Gujarat
- Haryana
- Himachal Pradesh
- Jharkhand
- Jammu and Kashmir (disputed territory, claimed by Pakistan)
- Karnataka
- Kerala
- Madhya Pradesh
- Maharashtra
- Manipur
- Meghalaya
- Mizoram
- Nagaland
- Orissa
- Punjab
- Rajasthan
- Sikkim
- Tamil Nadu
- Tripura (disputed territory, claimed by Bangladesh)
- Uttar Pradesh
- Uttarakhand
- West Bengal
[change] Geography and Climate
India is the seventh-largest country in the world. It is the main part of the Indian subcontinent. The countries which are next to India are Pakistan, Bangladesh, Myanmar, China, Bhutan, and Nepal. It is also near Sri Lanka, an island country.
India is a peninsula, which means that it is surrounded on three sides by water. In the west is the Arabian Sea, in the south is the Indian Ocean, and in the east is the Bay of Bengal. The northern part of India has many mountains. The most famous mountains in India are the Himalayas, which have some of the tallest mountains in the world. There are many rivers in India. The main rivers are the Ganges, the Brahmaputra, the Yamuna, the Godavari, the Kaveri, the Narmada, and the Krishna.
[14] It mainly has a tropical climate in the south, which means it can get very hot in summer and cool in winter.[14] The northern part, though, has a cooler climate, called sub-tropical, and even alpine in the region of the mountains.[14] The Himalayas, part of the alpine climate, can get extremely cold. There is very heavy rainfall along the west coast and in the Eastern Himalayan foothills. The west, though, is drier. Because of some of the deserts of India, all of India gets rain for four months of the year called the monsoon. That is so because the deserts attract water-filled winds from the Indian Ocean, which give rain when they come into India. When the monsoon rains come late or not so heavily, droughts (when the land wears out because there is less rain) are possible.
[change] Economy
Presently, the economy of the country is growing. The economy of India is the 12th largest in the world with a GDP of $568 billion (U.S.). In terms of PPP (how much that money can buy in India compared to other countries), the economy is fourth largest (worth $3.319 trillion U.S.). The growth rate is 6.2%. However, that is still only $3100 (considering PPP) per person per year.
India's economy is diverse. Major industries include automobiles, cement, chemicals, consumer electronics, food processing, machinery, mining, petroleum, pharmaceuticals, steel, transportation equipment, and textiles.[1]
However despite economic growth, India suffers from poverty. 27.5% of the population was living below the poverty line in 2004–2005[15]. The spread of wealth in India is not equal. 1/4 of the population earns less than $0.40/day.
[change] People
There are about 1.2 billion (1,200,000,000) people living in India.[1] So, India is the second largest country by the amount of people living in it. Experts think that by the year 2030, India will be the first.[16] About 70% of Indians live in farms.[17] The largest cities in India are Mumbai, Kolkata, Delhi, Chennai, Bangalore, Hyderabad, and Ahmedabad.[18] India has twenty-three (23) official languages.[19] Altogether, there are 1,625 languages that are spoken in India.[20] The religion Hinduism is followed by 80.1% of India; Islam - 13.3%; Christianity - 2.3%; Sikhism - 1.8%; Buddhism - 1.5%; Jainism - 0.4%; and many others.[21]
[change] References (information sources)
- ↑ 1.0 1.1 1.2 1.3 CIA Factbook: India. CIA Factbook. Retrieved on 10 March 2007.
- ↑ 2.0 2.1 Country profile: India. British Broadcasting Corporation (9 January 2007). Retrieved on 21 March 2007.
- ↑ "Inclusive Growth and Service delivery: Building on India’s Success". World Bank (2006). Retrieved on 28 April 2007.
- ↑ Page, Jeremy (February 22, 2007). "Indian children suffer more malnutrition than in Ethiopia". The Times. Retrieved on 28 April 2007.
- ↑ Introduction to the Ancient Indus Valley. Harappa (1996). Retrieved on 18 June 2007.
- ↑ Jona Lendering. Maurya dynasty. Retrieved on 17 June 2007.
- ↑ SOUTH INDIA. Suni System Ltd. (2007). Retrieved on 19 June 2007.
- ↑ From Trade to Colonization - Historic Dynamics of the East India Companies (June 03, 2007). Retrieved on 19 June 2007.
- ↑ (1997) CONCISE ENCYCLOPEDIA. Dorling Kindersly Limited, p. 455. ISBN 0-7513-5911-4.
- ↑ India Profile. NTI (2003). Retrieved on 20 June 2007.
- ↑ Montek S. Ahluwalia (2002). Economic Reforms in India since 1991: Has Gradualism Worked? (MS Word). Journal of Economic Perspectives. Retrieved on 13 June 2007.
- ↑ 12.0 12.1 Our Parliament A brief description of the Indian Parliament. www.parliamentofindia.gov.in. Retrieved on 16 June 2007.
- ↑ Matthew, K.M. (2006). Manorama Yearbook 2003. Malayala Manorama, pg 524. ISBN 81-89004-07-7.
- ↑ 14.0 14.1 14.2 (1997) CONCISE ENCYCLOPEDIA. Dorling Kindersly Limited, p. 333. ISBN 0-7513-5911-4.
- ↑ Poverty estimates for 2004-05, Planning commission, Government of India.
- ↑ (1997) CONCISE ENCYCLOPEDIA. Dorling Kindersly Limited, p. 332. ISBN 0-7513-5911-4.
- ↑ Census of India 2001. Census of India. Retrieved on April 12, 2007.
- ↑ Country Profile: India (PDF). Library of Congress - Federal Research Division (December 2004). Retrieved on 24 June 2007.
- ↑ Languages of India. India image. Retrieved on August 14, 2005.
- ↑ Matthew, K.M. (2006). Manorama Yearbook 2003. Malayala Manorama, pg 524. ISBN 81-89004-07-7.
- ↑ Census of India 2001, Data on Religion. Census of India. Retrieved on April 12, 2007.
[change] Other websites
Dictionary definitions from Wiktionary
Textbooks from Wikibooks
Quotations from Wikiquote
Source texts from Wikisource
Images and media from Commons
News stories from Wikinews
- Incredible India by Dogu - Images of India.
- Government
- Official entry portal of the Government of India
- Official directory of Indian Government websites
- Official
- CIA World Factbook information about India
- Encyclopædia Britannica entry on India
- BBC country profile of India
- Library of Congress Country Studies entry on India
| Countries and territories of Asia |
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| 1. Includes territory in both Europe and Asia. 2. Usually thought of Europe for cultural, Politically and historical reasons. 3. Special territories. |
